Consultation exercise: Have we identified all of England’s Selective Licensing schemes? 

Over the last few years, we have been compiling a list of Selective Licensing schemes in England. It is intended to help us with our evaluation.

We are making this information available as part of a consultation exercise. We want people to tell us if we have missed a local authority that previously had, or currently has, a selective licensing scheme. Or tell us if there is any other problem with our list of schemes.

If you know about any Selective Licensing schemes, please look at the table below or focus on the map of England and see if the scheme you know about is there. If you see any issues with the information we have provided, please contact us – contact details below. 

We think a publicly available list of Selective Licensing schemes would be useful to local and national authorities and others interested in housing and health, as there is no 'official' list of all the schemes. Up to now we have put most of our effort into checking the schemes that took place in our main study period (2011-19). We still want to check that time period, but we would also like our list of schemes to be as comprehensive and up to date as possible.

Contact us

We wish to hear about any possible issues with our list. We especially want to know of local authorities who implemented Selective Licensing schemes not currently included in our list. Please get in touch.

Please email katie.fahy2@liverpool.ac.uk preferably by 8 November 2024.

Please note that the map shows the Local Authorities that have implemented Selective Licensing. Many of the individual schemes are sub-areas within a local authority but our map shades the whole of the local authority in each case. More details about specific scheme boundaries will be made available at a later date. 

Further information: What is Selective Licensing?

Since 2006, local authorities have powers to implement area-based schemes where private landlords must register and pay a licence fee – known as Selective Licensing. These are not the only kind of private rental licensing schemes (there is also Mandatory and Additional Licensing for houses in multiple occupation) but we focus on Selective Licensing. Selective Licensing schemes usually last for 5 years and can be renewed – so the same area can have more than one scheme over time. They involve, amongst other things, inspections of properties and requirements for landlords to fix household hazards. They can be implemented in response to local problems such as low housing demand, antisocial behaviour, poor housing conditions, high levels of migration, deprivation, and crime. National government need to be informed about larger schemes but there is no definitive list of all the Selective Licensing schemes in England.

Table: Local authorities with Selective Licensing schemes in England, 2006-2021